1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to a method of creating external characters in an image forming apparatus, and more particularly to a method of creating an external character in a small specifying area on the screen of a display in an image forming apparatus.
2. Description of the Related Art
In a personal computer or a word processor, if a required character pattern is not previously stored in a memory, it is often the case that the user may additionally create the character pattern, i.e., external character by himself for his own use. A conventional method of creating an external character begins with calling a function of creating an external character from an associated apparatus, i.e., a personal computer or a word processor. When the function is called, a specifying area for creating an external character is displayed on the screen of a display. Then, the user moves a dot-like cursor in the vertical and horizontal directions in the specifying area to create a desired external character. The created external character is registered in a memory for later use such that it can be repetitively read therefrom as required.
However, when the conventional method of creating an external character is employed in a small image forming apparatus having a small display or in a multi-window environment having a number of small display windows on a display, a smaller specifying area is displayed corresponding to the size of the screen or window, causing difficulties in recognizing the position of the cursor for specifying dots. More specifically, even if the external character specifying area is small, an appropriate number of dots is required for displaying a variety of images or characters, so that the size of the dot itself must be reduced correspondingly. This requires the size of the cursor to be also reduced, however, since the cursor is extremely small, the user has difficulties in precisely recognizing the position of the cursor, when he is moving it, and is likely to lose the cursor in the specifying area. Thus, the conventional method of creating an external character has a problem that the creation of an external character burdens the user with very complicated and difficult works.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a method of creating an external character in an image forming apparatus which is capable of readily and efficiently creating fine external characters even in a small external character specifying area on a display of the image forming apparatus.
To achieve the above object, according to the present invention, there is provided a method of creating an external character for an image forming apparatus having a display screen, the method comprising the steps of displaying at least a portion of image data in a specifying area on the display screen, displaying a dot-shaped cursor on the display screen, and creating an external character on the displayed image data using the cursor.
The external character creating method is characterized by scrolling the image data in the vertical direction and in the horizontal direction to create an external character with the cursor being fixed at a position in the specifying area.
According to the external character creating method of the present invention, since displayed image data is scrolled in the vertical and/or horizontal directions to create an external character without moving the position of the cursor in the specifying area on the display screen, the external character can be created without missing the cursor, which always remains at a fixed position, in a readily visible situation, even when a small specifying area only can be provided on the display screen for creating an external character and hence an extremely small cursor must be used in the small specifying area.
Preferably, the image forming apparatus provides a position indicating guide comprising a plurality of lines which intersect at the position of the cursor when the image data is displayed on the display screen.
In this preferred embodiment, since the intersection of the lines (cross) constituting the position indicating guide (for example, in a cross shape) indicates the position of the cursor, the position of the cursor can be readily recognized even if surrounding image data prevents the cursor from being clearly recognized in some situations.
Preferably, the position indicating guide is displayed within the display screen. That is to say, since the cursor always remains at the same position, the position indicating guide may be displayed within the specifying area on the display screen together with the cursor, image data, and so on.
Alternatively, the position indicating guide may be a mark formed on the image forming apparatus outside the display screen. Specifically, the position indicating guide may be added to the specifying area by engraving, for example, thin lines therein so as to facilitate viewing of a display on the screen.
Further preferably, the external character creating method has a plurality of drawing modes for executing a plurality of drawing methods using the cursor.
According to this preferred embodiment, an external character can be created in a mode which can be arbitrarily selected from a plurality of drawing modes including, for example, a drawing mode for setting or modifying dot information of individually specified dots, a drawing mode for collectively setting or modifying dot information of dots in an arbitrarily specified area, and so on, in accordance with features of a particular external character to be created, so that external character creation works are facilitated.
For example, the plurality of drawing modes include a dot reverse drawing mode for reversing dot information of a dot in the image data corresponding to the position of the cursor.
In this preferred embodiment, since arbitrary dots can be specified one by one in image data to reverse dot information thereof during the drawing in the dot reverse drawing mode, an external character can be readily created.
The plurality of drawing methods further include a range specifying drawing mode for specifying two dots on the image data with the cursor to set the same dot information to a group of dots within a rectangular area defined by a line connecting the two dots as a diagonal.
According to this preferred embodiment, the external character creating method can specify two dots on image data in the area specifying drawing mode to specify an arbitrary rectangular range in which dot information should be set. Thus, the utilization of the range specifying drawing mode permits an external character to be more readily created when an arbitrary area is specified to collectively set the same dot information in the specified area. It should be noted that when dot information is set to a single dot, the dot may be specified twice, i.e., as the two dots, thus making it possible to utilize the range specifying drawing mode as a drawing mode for specifying a dot. In addition, by specifying two dots which differ only in vertical or horizontal coordinate, the range specifying drawing mode may be utilized as a drawing mode for collectively specifying the same dot information to a group of dots on a vertical line or on a horizontal line.
Further preferably, the external character creating method has a plurality of external character management modes, one of which is arbitrarily selected to manage the image data, where the plurality of external character management modes include an external character registration mode for creating the external character on the image data and registering the created external character.
According to this preferred embodiment, one of the plurality of external character management modes including the external character registration mode may be arbitrarily selected as required to manage image data. For example, when an external character management mode for modifying an external character associated with registered image data, an external character management mode for copying, and so on are provided as other external character management modes, registered external characters may be utilized for other purposes, thereby providing efficient works for creating external characters.
Further preferably, the external character management modes further include at least one of an external character modification mode for modifying an external character associated with a registered image data to register the modified external character in place of the original one, an external character call mode for calling registered image data to generate corresponding text data, an external character copy mode for copying registered image data to separately register the copied image data as different image data, and external character deletion mode for deleting registered image data.
According to this preferred embodiment, since the external character management modes except for the external character registration mode include at least one of the external character modification mode, the external character call mode, the external character copy mode, and the external character deletion mode, the external character creating method has advantages such as increased ease and efficiency with which an external character can be created. For example, when the external character modification mode is included, the external character modification mode may be selected to modify a registered external character for utilizing the modified version as a different external character. Also, when the external character call mode is included, if an arbitrary symbol, figure, or the like has been created and registered as an external character, text data corresponding to the image data or the external character can be generated, so that a variety of text data can be provided. Further, when the external character copy mode is included, registered image data may be copied so as to utilize the copied image data in other processing of the image forming apparatus. In this way, the original image data can be preserved as it is even when the image data is subjected to a modification or any other processing. In addition, when the external character copy mode is utilized together with the external character modification mode, original image data as well as copied image data or the like may be simultaneously registered, thereby increasing the versatility of external characters. Furthermore, when the external character deletion mode is included, unnecessary image data may be deleted from registered image data, so that a storing region for registering external characters, typically reserved in a memory or the like, can be saved.
The above and other objects, features, and advantages of the present invention will become more apparent from the following detailed description of the preferred embodiment taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.